Careless shooting yields 7-year sentence

PALMER — Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler had strong words for Allen Michael Page in sentencing him to seven years in prison for shooting at a car fleeing from a gas station in Palmer last summer.

“Do you not understand this is a gun?” she asked. “What are you thinking?”

Page, 19, appeared before Cutler Tuesday having pleaded no contest March 19 to one count of weapons misconduct. Cutler eventually handed him a sentence of 10 years with three suspended.

Page and his brother, Travis Page, got into a fight Aug. 26 at the Tesoro on the Glenn Highway. The fight was the culmination of an altercation that started earlier in the evening at the Alaska State Fair. The other parties in the fight jumped into a Ford Thunderbird and fled. Page allegedly opened fire at the Thunderbird, which carried three adults and an infant girl.

As Allen Page was sentenced, his girlfriend and their toddler watched. He remained silent, choosing to address the court through a letter he submitted to Cutler.

Paul Maslakowski, his public defender, said that Allen Page is on the right track, taking advantage of prison programs open to him. He noted Page earned his GED while waiting for his case to be resolved. He said that, due to an injury, Page didn’t remember the night of the shooting, but doesn’t deny firing the weapon.

Regarding the claims of memory loss, Cutler expressed skepticism.

“You tell us, oh, you don’t know, you don’t remember? Am I supposed to believe that?” she asked.

As to whether it was Allen Page firing the gun, prosecutor Mike Walsh pointed to evidence that Page’s blood, shed during the altercation leading up to the shooting, was on the gun, which was found in his Chevy Tahoe.

“There’s really no way to overstate the seriousness of this conduct,” Walsh said, noting that Allen Page was lucky nobody was hurt or killed. Walsh also described the crime as, “Engaging in deadly force when he had absolutely no justification for doing so.”

In handing down her sentence, Cutler took note of Allen Page’s admissions of using marijuana every day from ages 16 to 18.

“That’s a lot of pot,” she said. “I suspect you have affected your brain, you have affected your ambition.”

Cutler also said she knows it must be hard for Allen Page to believe he’d walked into a seven-year prison term for one night of imprudence.

“It’s just a crying shame because you are young,” she said. “I do hope, sir, that you find yourself a more adult and thinking person when this is all over.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiers-man.com or 352-2270.